The trailer for the third film in the Fantastic Beasts series has been released, with Mads Mikkelsen making his debut as evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald.

The Danish actor has replaced Johnny Depp, who left the Harry Potter prequel series after losing his high-profile libel case against The Sun newspaper.

In a dramatic three-minute trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, set several years after the events of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander and Jude Law’s Albus Dumbledore prepare to face the shadowy figure of Grindelwald in battle.

“If you listen carefully enough, the past whispers to you,” Law says before introducing the protagonists, which he describes as “a magizoologist, his indispensable assistant, a wizard descended from a very old family, a schoolteacher and a muggle”.

Mikkelsen’s character later announces that “our war with the muggles begins today”.

The trailer for the latest film sees the return of some iconic Harry Potter settings, with the cast seen visiting Hogwarts and the Room of Requirement.

The film is due to arrive on 15 April 2022 and will see the return of David Yates, director of the last four Harry Potter films and the first two Fantastic Beasts movies.

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Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore was originally due to begin filming in March 2020 but the coronavirus pandemic added to issues and prompted Warner Bros to postpone until September.

Mikkelsen, whose credits include Bond villain Le Chiffre and Dr Hannibal Lecter in the television series Hannibal, was announced as Depp’s replacement.

The cast also includes Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler and Jessica Williams.

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